Am Dienstag, den 06.08.2013, 10:14 -0400 schrieb Rob Clark: > On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Lucas Stach <l.st...@pengutronix.de> wrote: > > Am Dienstag, den 06.08.2013, 12:31 +0100 schrieb Tom Cooksey: > >> Hi Rob, > >> > >> +lkml > >> > >> > >> On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Tom Cooksey <tom.cook...@arm.com> > >> > >> wrote: > >> > >> >> > * It abuses flags parameter of DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB to > >> > >> >> > also allocate buffers for the GPU. Still not sure how to > >> > >> >> > resolve this as we don't use DRM for our GPU driver. > >> > >> >> > >> > >> >> any thoughts/plans about a DRM GPU driver? Ideally long term > >> > >> >> (esp. once the dma-fence stuff is in place), we'd have > >> > >> >> gpu-specific drm (gpu-only, no kms) driver, and SoC/display > >> > >> >> specific drm/kms driver, using prime/dmabuf to share between > >> > >> >> the two. > >> > >> > > >> > >> > The "extra" buffers we were allocating from armsoc DDX were really > >> > >> > being allocated through DRM/GEM so we could get an flink name > >> > >> > for them and pass a reference to them back to our GPU driver on > >> > >> > the client side. If it weren't for our need to access those > >> > >> > extra off-screen buffers with the GPU we wouldn't need to > >> > >> > allocate them with DRM at all. So, given they are really "GPU" > >> > >> > buffers, it does absolutely make sense to allocate them in a > >> > >> > different driver to the display driver. > >> > >> > > >> > >> > However, to avoid unnecessary memcpys & related cache > >> > >> > maintenance ops, we'd also like the GPU to render into buffers > >> > >> > which are scanned out by the display controller. So let's say > >> > >> > we continue using DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB to allocate scan > >> > >> > out buffers with the display's DRM driver but a custom ioctl > >> > >> > on the GPU's DRM driver to allocate non scanout, off-screen > >> > >> > buffers. Sounds great, but I don't think that really works > >> > >> > with DRI2. If we used two drivers to allocate buffers, which > >> > >> > of those drivers do we return in DRI2ConnectReply? Even if we > >> > >> > solve that somehow, GEM flink names are name-spaced to a > >> > >> > single device node (AFAIK). So when we do a DRI2GetBuffers, > >> > >> > how does the EGL in the client know which DRM device owns GEM > >> > >> > flink name "1234"? We'd need some pretty dirty hacks. > >> > >> > >> > >> You would return the name of the display driver allocating the > >> > >> buffers. On the client side you can use generic ioctls to go from > >> > >> flink -> handle -> dmabuf. So the client side would end up opening > >> > >> both the display drm device and the gpu, but without needing to know > >> > >> too much about the display. > >> > > > >> > > I think the bit I was missing was that a GEM bo for a buffer imported > >> > > using dma_buf/PRIME can still be flink'd. So the display controller's > >> > > DRM driver allocates scan-out buffers via the DUMB buffer allocate > >> > > ioctl. Those scan-out buffers than then be exported from the > >> > > dispaly's DRM driver and imported into the GPU's DRM driver using > >> > > PRIME. Once imported into the GPU's driver, we can use flink to get a > >> > > name for that buffer within the GPU DRM driver's name-space to return > >> > > to the DRI2 client. That same namespace is also what DRI2 back- > >> > > buffers are allocated from, so I think that could work... Except... > >> > > >> > (and.. the general direction is that things will move more to just use > >> > dmabuf directly, ie. wayland or dri3) > >> > >> I agree, DRI2 is the only reason why we need a system-wide ID. I also > >> prefer buffers to be passed around by dma_buf fd, but we still need to > >> support DRI2 and will do for some time I expect. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > Anyway, that latter case also gets quite difficult. The "GPU" > >> > >> > DRM driver would need to know the constraints of the display > >> > >> > controller when allocating buffers intended to be scanned out. > >> > >> > For example, pl111 typically isn't behind an IOMMU and so > >> > >> > requires physically contiguous memory. We'd have to teach the > >> > >> > GPU's DRM driver about the constraints of the display HW. Not > >> > >> > exactly a clean driver model. :-( > >> > >> > > >> > >> > I'm still a little stuck on how to proceed, so any ideas > >> > >> > would greatly appreciated! My current train of thought is > >> > >> > having a kind of SoC-specific DRM driver which allocates > >> > >> > buffers for both display and GPU within a single GEM > >> > >> > namespace. That SoC-specific DRM driver could then know the > >> > >> > constraints of both the GPU and the display HW. We could then > >> > >> > use PRIME to export buffers allocated with the SoC DRM driver > >> > >> > and import them into the GPU and/or display DRM driver. > >> > >> > >> > >> Usually if the display drm driver is allocating the buffers that > >> > >> might be scanned out, it just needs to have minimal knowledge of > >> > >> the GPU (pitch alignment constraints). I don't think we need a > >> > >> 3rd device just to allocate buffers. > >> > > > >> > > While Mali can render to pretty much any buffer, there is a mild > >> > > performance improvement to be had if the buffer stride is aligned to > >> > > the AXI bus's max burst length when drawing to the buffer. > >> > > >> > I suspect the display controllers might frequently benefit if the > >> > pitch is aligned to AXI burst length too.. > >> > >> If the display controller is going to be reading from linear memory > >> I don't think it will make much difference - you'll just get an extra > >> 1-2 bus transactions per scanline. With a tile-based GPU like Mali, > >> you get those extra transactions per _tile_ scan-line and as such, > >> the overhead is more pronounced. > >> > >> > >> > >> > > So in some respects, there is a constraint on how buffers which will > >> > > be drawn to using the GPU are allocated. I don't really like the idea > >> > > of teaching the display controller DRM driver about the GPU buffer > >> > > constraints, even if they are fairly trivial like this. If the same > >> > > display HW IP is being used on several SoCs, it seems wrong somehow > >> > > to enforce those GPU constraints if some of those SoCs don't have a > >> > > GPU. > >> > > >> > Well, I suppose you could get min_pitch_alignment from devicetree, or > >> > something like this.. > >> > > >> > In the end, the easy solution is just to make the display allocate to > >> > the worst-case pitch alignment. In the early days of dma-buf > >> > discussions, we kicked around the idea of negotiating or > >> > programatically describing the constraints, but that didn't really > >> > seem like a bounded problem. > >> > >> Yeah - I was around for some of those discussions and agree it's not > >> really an easy problem to solve. > >> > >> > >> > >> > > We may also then have additional constraints when sharing buffers > >> > > between the display HW and video decode or even camera ISP HW. > >> > > Programmatically describing buffer allocation constraints is very > >> > > difficult and I'm not sure you can actually do it - there's some > >> > > pretty complex constraints out there! E.g. I believe there's a > >> > > platform where Y and UV planes of the reference frame need to be in > >> > > separate DRAM banks for real-time 1080p decode, or something like > >> > > that? > >> > > >> > yes, this was discussed. This is different from pitch/format/size > >> > constraints.. it is really just a placement constraint (ie. where do > >> > the physical pages go). IIRC the conclusion was to use a dummy > >> > devices with it's own CMA pool for attaching the Y vs UV buffers. > >> > > >> > > Anyway, I guess my point is that even if we solve how to allocate > >> > > buffers which will be shared between the GPU and display HW such that > >> > > both sets of constraints are satisfied, that may not be the end of > >> > > the story. > >> > > > >> > > >> > that was part of the reason to punt this problem to userspace ;-) > >> > > >> > In practice, the kernel drivers doesn't usually know too much about > >> > the dimensions/format/etc.. that is really userspace level knowledge. > >> > There are a few exceptions when the kernel needs to know how to setup > >> > GTT/etc for tiled buffers, but normally this sort of information is up > >> > at the next level up (userspace, and drm_framebuffer in case of > >> > scanout). Userspace media frameworks like GStreamer already have a > >> > concept of format/caps negotiation. For non-display<->gpu sharing, I > >> > think this is probably where this sort of constraint negotiation > >> > should be handled. > >> > >> I agree that user-space will know which devices will access the buffer > >> and thus can figure out at least a common pixel format. Though I'm not > >> so sure userspace can figure out more low-level details like alignment > >> and placement in physical memory, etc. > >> > >> Anyway, assuming user-space can figure out how a buffer should be > >> stored in memory, how does it indicate this to a kernel driver and > >> actually allocate it? Which ioctl on which device does user-space > >> call, with what parameters? Are you suggesting using something like > >> ION which exposes the low-level details of how buffers are laid out in > >> physical memory to userspace? If not, what? > >> > > > > I strongly disagree with exposing low-level hardware details like tiling > > to userspace. If we have to do the negotiation of those things in > > userspace we will end up with having to pipe those information through > > things like the wayland protocol. I don't see how this could ever be > > considered a good idea. > > well, unless userspace mmap's via a de-tiling gart type thing, I don't > think tiling can be invisible to userspace. > Why is mmap considered to be such a strong use-case for DMABUFs? After all we are trying to _avoid_ mmapping shared buffers where ever possible.
> But if two GPU's have some overlap in supportable tiled formats, and > you have one gpu doing app and one doing compositor, and you want to > use tiling for the shared buffers, you need something in the wayland > protocol to figure out what the common supported formats are between > the two sides. I suppose it shouldn't be too hard to add a > standardized (cross-driver) format-negotiation protocol, and in the > absence of that fallback to non tiled format for shared buffers. > I don't see how tiling format negotiation would be easier in userspace than in the kernel. If we can come up with a scheme for that, we can as well do it in the kernel. > > I would rather see kernel drivers negotiating those things at dmabuf > > attach time in way invisible to userspace. I agree that this negotiation > > thing isn't easy to get right for the plethora of different hardware > > constraints we see today, but I would rather see this in-kernel, where > > we have the chance to fix things up if needed, than in a fixed userspace > > interface. > > Well, if you can think of a sane way to add that to dev->dma_params, > and if it isn't visible if userspace mmap's a buffer, then we could > handle that in the kernel. But I don't think that will be the case. > I'm sure we can come up with something sane to put it in there. The userspace mmap thing is a bit complicated to deal with, but I have the feeling that going through a slow path if you really need mmap is a reasonable thing to do. For example we could just make mmap some form of attach that forces linear layout if the exporter isn't able to give userspace a linear mapping from a tiled buffer by using GART or VM. Regards, Lucas -- Pengutronix e.K. | Lucas Stach | Industrial Linux Solutions | http://www.pengutronix.de/ | Peiner Str. 6-8, 31137 Hildesheim, Germany | Phone: +49-5121-206917-5076 | Amtsgericht Hildesheim, HRA 2686 | Fax: +49-5121-206917-5555 | -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/